So after sucessfully decompiling framework-res.apk and modifying the default autobrightness values to be lower, I was able to push it back to my phone and was confronted with a laughably large status bar:
I THINK it has to do with using apk manager and deleting the old resources.arsc when recompiling thus not having the correct screen density/resolution reconized. But leaving the old resources file results in my edits being overwritten. Any tips or advice from our expert themers?
I'm a complete noob at theming and messing with the framework, but I'm trying to learn, so any help is appreciated!
Well I've had a bit more time to troubleshoot and it seems that regardless of whether or not I make any edits to any XML files or not, recompiling the apk and deleting the original resources file results in the above condition. Going to keep digging...
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im running steelh and i have the blue epic style battery. how can i get the battery percentage into that without using different icons? i tired the online kitchen but my phone is stuck in a bootloop.
anybody? the kitchen just gives me errors.
ive used the online kitchen before with no issues, but id like to know how to this manually.
Sent from my panty-dropper.
ericwgarza1 said:
ive used the online kitchen before with no issues, but id like to know how to this manually.
Sent from my panty-dropper.
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Click to collapse
i cannot get it to work no matter what i do. can any dev help out here? i want the blue epic style battery with percentage. aside from the png's what files do you need to get this working on a sense rom? all of this hassle is making me want to go back to cm6, at least on that we can use the settings to accomplish alot of things we cannot on sense roms.
can you add the battery percentage mod into a rom that doesn't by default come with it? i heard about needing a modded services.jar file? or do i have to go with a different rom here for what i need? the online kitchen will simply not work for me.
The battery mods are accomplished by editing xmls and pngs in framework-res.apk
SteelH said:
The battery mods are accomplished by editing xmls and pngs in framework-res.apk
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i have the png's but i have no clue how to mod xml files. im pretty good at Frankensteining themes together but for the life of me i cannot get this to work.
A couple of things: are you using a deodexed or odexed rom? Are you trying to add the circle battery to your existing theme or are you just trying to add the battery period?
I made a "dummy" flash file a while back that "prepped" odex roms before flashing the battery percentage mods.
You can also decompile the framework you want and transfer over the pngs and xmls for the battery mod into your existing framework.
Decompiling would be the best route as you would have to recompile it with the new xmls added to the resource list.
I would/could help but I won't flash anything on my evo right now since I currently have it hooked up to debug an app. Just send me the framework file from your phone and the battery mod you want and I can take a look at them and hopefully recompile it for you.
lovethyEVO said:
A couple of things: are you using a deodexed or odexed rom? Are you trying to add the circle battery to your existing theme or are you just trying to add the battery period?
I made a "dummy" flash file a while back that "prepped" odex roms before flashing the battery percentage mods.
You can also decompile the framework you want and transfer over the pngs and xmls for the battery mod into your existing framework.
Decompiling would be the best route as you would have to recompile it with the new xmls added to the resource list.
I would/could help but I won't flash anything on my evo right now since I currently have it hooked up to debug an app. Just send me the framework file from your phone and the battery mod you want and I can take a look at them and hopefully recompile it for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its the steelh deodexed rom. i have alot of themes going on and i do not want to loose them. i just want the battery with the percentage in it. ive attached what you may need, thank you.
I'll take a look at them now.
Give me some time.
lovethyEVO said:
I'll take a look at them now.
Give me some time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for taking the time!
Found a clue about the problem.
The online kitchen I believe has a disclaimer about .9pngs in the framework.
Basically if some .9s are not edited correctly it can cause an error in the decompile/compile process.
The framework you gave me throws an error when trying to compile. I have seen this error many times before and it always results in the changed files (xml and pngs) not being inserted into the newly compiled framework.
I decompiled/compiled three times, same error and the changed files were not inserted into the compiled apk.
Your problem lies in the framework and the tools ability to properly process the .9s.
Also, the epic zip you gave me does not have any xml files to tell the framework what png to display and it has 80 more pngs for the battery charge animation.
This is not something I want to spend more time on right now but the info I'm giving will hopefully get you in the right direction.
I think the two .xmls that needs to be edited are:
stat_sys_battery.xml
stat_sys_battery_charge.xml
Decompile a framework-res that already has the mod included and you should get an idea of what to do.
Someoneplease let me know if I'm wrong. Thanks!
ericwgarza1 said:
I think the two .xmls that needs to be edited are:
stat_sys_battery.xml
stat_sys_battery_charge.xml
Decompile a framework-res that already has the mod included and you should get an idea of what to do.
Someoneplease let me know if I'm wrong. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are actually 3 xmls needed for the battery mod.
The op stated he has a theme going and he doesn't want to lose it. The only way to incorporate the battery mod and keep his theme is to add the battery to his existing framework.
As I explained above, .9s are special pngs and if they are not edited correctly will cause the decompile/compile tool to throw an error. Themers will edit .9s and although they will show properly on the phone the tool used to decompile/compile the apks will notice if the .9s are incorrect.
What the online kitchen does and what I did manually are the same thing and more than likely with the same tools. The epic pngs the op supplied did not have any xmls and so im surprised the online kitchen was able to produce an apk.
If I spent more time on it I could probably figure it out but I am already occupied with another time consuming task.
What is the other .xml named?
I'd like to personally (for learning purposes) add the battery percentage to a stock framework-res.apk manually. Thanks!
Try this. I give no guarantees at all since I manually inserted the xmls and pngs. Also since there are 80 more pngs for the charge animation there's no way of telling how it will look.
lovethyEVO said:
There are actually 3 xmls needed for the battery mod.
The op stated he has a theme going and he doesn't want to lose it. The only way to incorporate the battery mod and keep his theme is to add the battery to his existing framework.
As I explained above, .9s are special pngs and if they are not edited correctly will cause the decompile/compile tool to throw an error. Themers will edit .9s and although they will show properly on the phone the tool used to decompile/compile the apks will notice if the .9s are incorrect.
What the online kitchen does and what I did manually are the same thing and more than likely with the same tools. The epic pngs the op supplied did not have any xmls and so im surprised the online kitchen was able to produce an apk.
If I spent more time on it I could probably figure it out but I am already occupied with another time consuming task.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good explanation thank you. I think I have the similar problem I unzipped my framework and changed my battery and it worked. The only problem is I can only use the six charging animations. A little research last night and I realized I needed to edit the xml. Decompiling my framework would not work and I think your explanation helps me understand why.
ericwgarza1 said:
What is the other .xml named?
I'd like to personally (for learning purposes) add the battery percentage to a stock framework-res.apk manually. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe public.xml
I've been a long time reader and I've learned quite a bit today on Android and its applications. I've been trying to recompile a modified Protips.apk and have it successfully run on my D1. I've been unsuccessful, and would like some pointers on where to looks next.
I'm intrigued by the modified Home Screen Tips widget as seen on Cyanogen and BuglessBeast. I figured I could do it too since it seems rather simple.
I pulled Protips.apk from my D1, archived it somewhere else, and ran apktools to decompile the app. I found that in: res/values/arrays.xml there's all the code I need to start changing text. I wanted to do something basic like Hello World as a test, so I slightly changed the first item to read Hello World! on the first line. So I edited the .xml file and considered the job done.
I recompiled my modified contents using apktools, and pushed the apk to my phone. It didn't show up in the widgets menu, so I figured I needed to sign the thing.
First I tried copying the META-INF data from the original APK into the new one, and though the you could apply the widget to the homescreen, it'd error. "Problem loading widget." Next I took the original manifest and popped it into the new APK. Same thing.
I thought I could try singing the modded APK myself. After recompiling I ran the APK through Auto-Sign. It still errors.
Someone mentioned that if you're modifying XML files, the resources.arsc file should be removed "prior to recompiling." I'm lost at this point, since when you decompile with apktools, you don't have access to that resource. If you remove it from the final apk, the app doesn't show up in the widgets menu.
I'm trying to figure out where I'm going wrong. Surely it has to be something rather simple.
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Resolved
Decided to give Apk Manager a try. Decompiled the APK, edited the arrays.xml file, Compiled (deleting resources.arsc where instructed in the keep folder), signed the app, then pushed it to my phone. It works. I'll attempt the process using apktools again now that I have a working mod.
derik001 said:
I've been a long time reader and I've learned quite a bit today on Android and its applications. I've been trying to recompile a modified Protips.apk and have it successfully run on my D1. I've been unsuccessful, and would like some pointers on where to looks next.
I'm intrigued by the modified Home Screen Tips widget as seen on Cyanogen and BuglessBeast. I figured I could do it too since it seems rather simple.
I pulled Protips.apk from my D1, archived it somewhere else, and ran apktools to decompile the app. I found that in: res/values/arrays.xml there's all the code I need to start changing text. I wanted to do something basic like Hello World as a test, so I slightly changed the first item to read Hello World! on the first line. So I edited the .xml file and considered the job done.
I recompiled my modified contents using apktools, and pushed the apk to my phone. It didn't show up in the widgets menu, so I figured I needed to sign the thing.
First I tried copying the META-INF data from the original APK into the new one, and though the you could apply the widget to the homescreen, it'd error. "Problem loading widget." Next I took the original manifest and popped it into the new APK. Same thing.
I thought I could try singing the modded APK myself. After recompiling I ran the APK through Auto-Sign. It still errors.
Someone mentioned that if you're modifying XML files, the resources.arsc file should be removed "prior to recompiling." I'm lost at this point, since when you decompile with apktools, you don't have access to that resource. If you remove it from the final apk, the app doesn't show up in the widgets menu.
I'm trying to figure out where I'm going wrong. Surely it has to be something rather simple.
------------------
Resolved
Decided to give Apk Manager a try. Decompiled the APK, edited the arrays.xml file, Compiled (deleting resources.arsc where instructed in the keep folder), signed the app, then pushed it to my phone. It works. I'll attempt the process using apktools again now that I have a working mod.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using apktool you must sign after other wise it won't install... I had issues using it to do a status bar mod.. Wondering if I can just sign it using that apkmanager and have it work... I used a kitchen to sign mine and it didn't sign right...
SO I just spent the past hour installing SDK and decompiling the SystemUI.apk, now I'm at the part where I can do some major modifying but I have never done this before and I'm not quite sure how to make a custom .png for a battery icon, seems that's the first mod I will be working on, any help with this would be GREATLY appreciated
Well I wouldn't start with that image because there's over 200 png's you have to make for that mod... I'd start with signals or something where there's only one or a few images to create...
Let me preface this by saying I am a noob at theming, but wanted to give it a whack. I did some research and asked questions and made some progress until I hit a brick wall. I am on a stock based ROM and that makes a big difference.
So I pulled the framework and sytemui apk's. I de-compiled these and made made the changes I wanted and that's when the ish hit the fan. Apparently there is no way to re-compile the stock ASUS apk's.
So now how to I go about making these changes if I can not re-compile the apk's? Is there a work around or do I need to change the files in another way? Can I change the regular png files or do I need to use the .9 png files? Any help or pointers is appreciated. I am still learning this stuff. I learned how to batch change colors which helped immensely.
Hey Everyone,
I'm looking to get back into de-compiling, modifying, and recompiling APKs again (after many many years) and I'm finding it a bit difficult this time around. For starters, why are there so many "drawable-xxxx" folders now and how do I know which folder to modify the .png files that I want to customize? Also, how do I go about modifying the .xml file for an app to change the font color/style, theme, etc.?
Does anyone know of a good resource to refresh my memory on all of this?
Thanks for the help!
BMWPower06 said:
Hey Everyone,
I'm looking to get back into de-compiling, modifying, and recompiling APKs again (after many many years) and I'm finding it a bit difficult this time around. For starters, why are there so many "drawable-xxxx" folders now and how do I know which folder to modify the .png files that I want to customize? Also, how do I go about modifying the .xml file for an app to change the font color/style, theme, etc.?
Does anyone know of a good resource to refresh my memory on all of this?
Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I've made some, I don't claim they're the best or something, but I think it's a good place to start.
For everything I could think of: [GUIDE][INDEX]How to modify an apk
For colors and png:
[GUIDE][THEMING]How to find in the code what you want to theme
[THEME & GUIDE][XDA]XDA Reloaded
My last guide was the INDEX, in previous guides I use methods to sign or align apks that I don't really recommend anymore. Read the index first for signing and aligning, then other guides
I also have made themes, the link is in my signature, click it to see